Brixo - Building Blocks Meet Electricity and IoT

$716,791

6,171

backers

BRIXO's electric bricks are normal sized building blocks that are anything but normal. It's like Lego® on steroids, if steroids also gave you superpowers and taught you new languages.

Basically, they're bricks that safely conduct electricity and connect to your phone to enable you to do all sorts of cool things with your designs. And no, you don't need to buy a whole new set, because they're used interchangeably with your favorite building blocks to add an element of interactive awesomeness.

BRIXO bricks include LED lights, motor blocks and even sound, light and proximity sensors. They’re powered by a low voltage Bluetooth controlled built-in battery brick and coated in chrome, a non-toxic metal, to ensure your safety.

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With bricks that can be triggered by sound, light, touch and the entire world of IoT, there isn’t much you CAN’T do. You can set your phone's alarm clock to only shut off when you build a pyramid. Or you make a treat dispenser that gives your pup a treat every time he goes to his crate when there’s a knock at the door. Or help your kid build a nightlight that turns on when he says "heebeejeebee". And that’s just what our crew did, you’ve probably got a few ideas of your own.

You can even use it to replace high end automated IoT processes, like setting your Nest profile and turning on all your smart home devices just by hanging up a BRIXO keychain on a BRIXO board by the door. The possibilities are pretty much endless.

There are 3 types of bricks:

These blocks are chrome and connect the trigger blocks to the action blocks. So yes, your designs will be riding on chrome.

Trigger blocks are the ones that are set to respond with an action to sounds, lights, or having another brick in its proximity. Oh yeah, and with a bit of technical know-how, you can even set it to be triggered by pretty much anything using IoT and IFTTT.

This is where the magic happens. As you can probably guess, these are the blocks that do stuff, really cool stuff. The go-getters. Set your action blocks to light up, spin, move, and take action.

Brixo isn't just a product, it's also a community made up of developers, amateur architects and full-time tinkerers. We're exploring the possibilities together, and learning from each another.

We have a range of stuff, from 3D building instructions to an online library of models and hacks. Join our community share your models and learn to build new ones.

Join a group of design loving tech explorers who are powered by curiosity.

BRIXO’s smart internal 9V battery block powers your creations and constantly monitors their currents so you don’t have to worry about short circuits. A built-in Bluetooth controller will let you change the current’s direction and voltage levels via our mobile application. The smart battery will also detect when you're not using BRIXO and conserve power to extend battery life.

BRIXO trigger blocks are designed to control the action without additional wiring. Connected along the current path, they switch action blocks “on” and “off” using built-in light, sound and proximity sensors. The trigger blocks’ smart switching functionality operates the action blocks by controlling the current in the circuit.

Set our BRIXO bricks in motion using the Internet of Things from anywhere in the world. Try it out!

Just email brixodemo@gmail.com with subject line: 'High Five' or 'Blink 3' you can also tweet @brixotoys. Now sit back and watch (up to 60 seconds Youtube delay).

It all began a couple of years ago with my son. He successfully wired an electric science kit and proudly showed it to me. I asked him where the circuit was and he looked at me puzzled. I quickly realized he couldn’t see it through the forest of tangled wires on his breadboard. Not a moment later, he went back to playing with his favorite toy, Lego®, and the idea for BRIXO revealed itself. At first we tried to embed wires into existing blocks, but quickly understood two important things: the blocks must be simple (no wires inside!) and fully compatible with standard building blocks. As physicists, we deal with thin films all day long, so the solution to use a conductive chrome coating was right in front of our eyes. Several trials & prototypes later, the idea formed into the fun and educational electricity-conducting building blocks they are today.

Q: Do I need other building blocks to enjoy BRIXO?

A: No. You can build a structure with BRIXO blocks only, but it will be limited in size.

Q: Is BRIXO safe?

A: Yes. The blocks are safe to use chemically, electrically and physically.

Q: Do I need to know how electronics work?

A: No. BRIXO is easy to use and educational for all ages. We’ll include a manual with several circuit example so you could get inspired and learn the basic of electricity on the same time.

Q: Where can I find ideas for models I can build with BRIXO?

A: Right here. (Follow the link!)

Q: How is BRIXO different from electric Lego® and other competitors?

A: Unlike its competition, BRIXO blocks are wireless (no wires, literally), elegant and much more durable.

Q: Is that all?

A: Definitely NOT. This is just the start!

LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site

Risks and challenges

BRIXO is not complete without its interactive sensors. One of our major challenges so far was finding a way to allow triggered action without using specially designated wires (or any wires for that matter). Our solution is our simple trigger blocks, which sit along the circuit and throttle the current flow through the block itself. Now, as we move from R&D to manufacturing, our immediate challenge will be to convert our working prototype models into mass production molds of the highest quality, while maintaining reasonable pricing. But by choosing Kickstarter as BRIXO’s first distribution platform, we’re communicating directly with customers. Now we can invest more in tooling & manufacturing in order to deliver the product quality BRIXO warrants.